1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to battery chargers and battery jumpers and in particular to an apparatus for jumping and charging a remote battery.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable battery chargers are known in the art. The use of a separate battery to jump start a vehicle having a starting battery is also known. Battery chargers are typically relatively low current devices that provide a charging current to a battery over a period of time. This charging current may be varied, depending upon the state of charge of the battery being charged. The state of charge of the battery being charged may be sensed by detecting the amount of current drawn and the amount of voltage applied by the charger to the battery. Since, with most battery chargers the current supplied to the battery, that is, the charging current, is relatively low compared to normal currents drawn from the battery when powering a starting motor of a vehicle, for example, relatively light cables may be used to connect the charger to the battery to be charged. Since the charging current is relatively low, the cables used to connect the charger to the battery may be made of relatively light gauge wire and the length of the cables may be relatively long as the voltage drop that occurs in the cables is relatively low. The use of long light cables permits the battery charger to be placed on a table or on the ground beside a vehicle in which the battery to be charged is located. Since typical battery cables are made of relatively light gauge wire, they are easy to manipulate and work with around a vehicle.
The use of a separate battery to jump start a vehicle having a starting battery requires the ability to conduct significant currents, often in excess of 100A, in the case of an automobile starting battery and generally this requires relatively short, relatively heavy gauge cables for connecting the separate or auxiliary battery to the starting battery. After the separate battery is used to jump start a vehicle, for example, the separate battery is depleted from its original charge state and must be re-charged. This is often done with a separate charger, which may be of the type described above.
Prior inventors have integrated a portable battery charger with a booster battery, such as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/177,635 published under US Pub. No.: U.S. 2003/0011344 A1 on Jan. 16, 2004, to produce an integrated battery charger with booster pack. However, such a system employs the same wires for charging and jumping, which inherently requires relatively heavy gauge cables to be used to connect the device to a remote battery for charging or jumping, which can be disadvantageous, for the reasons presented above.